“I got to take a leak,” he said. Louise nodded. She let Harvey Stoner calm down. He kept the car running but he turned off the lights. She could see the outline of him in the puff of cold, the amber haze of his parking lights. A shoulder of wind hit the car and she felt a thousand slivers of ice. She knew the narrow snaking dips of the road, the place where the barrow pits plunged and the places where they bridged to the hillside. In this snow, if she had to make a run for it she could ditch Harvey Stoner.

“I want you to love me,” he said when he had gotten back into the car. Louise could smell the bitter tar of cigar smoke in his hair. He began to rub her thigh. She kept her leg still. He leaned toward her and whispered, “I want you to love me.”

Louise watched the road. From far away she could see the headlamps of another car coming. She waited and watched. She let Harvey roll his thumb along her panty line. When he unbuttoned his slacks she pulled her arm tight to her side and kicked the door open. He was outside the car with her. She could feel the weight of him, the chase of him behind her. Her shoes slipped on the ice-rutted road. Snow ringed the headlamps of the advancing car, created a shimmering glow that lifted around them. Harvey held her wrists behind her and nodded grimly as the car passed them. “You’re showing me plenty,” he said to her.

He slammed her against his car door. The cold had not numbed her. She felt the sting of blood along her spine. She put one hand over her closed eyes as Harvey reached up under her dress to cup her ass. She felt his hard knuckles between her legs as he stroked himself. The wind blew so hard it split her hair to the scalp. She felt the deep ache of her bones. A pulse of heat hit her thigh. For a moment Harvey dropped his head on her shoulder. She grabbed his testicles then, and squeezed until her nails bit through skin. He slugged her the way a man slugs a man, the arm back and rounding with drive, a knuckle-burning blow to her chest. She felt stunning blackness, circling silver bees. She let go of him. Her lungs were dull and heavy in her chest. She saw Harvey slumped over the hood of his car. She shot for the hills.